Systems and methods for estimation of building wall area

ABSTRACT

A wall area estimation system generates an estimated wall area measurement of a building based on the received roof measurements (e.g., those generated by, received from or found in a three-dimensional model of the roof) and a reference distance. The reference distance is a measurement indicative of a distance between the roof and a model ground surface placed on an image of the building where the walls of the building meet the ground. This reference distance may be used to determine how for down to extend the walls of the building (e.g., to a ground level) when building a three-dimensional digital model of the building to aid in generating wall area measurements. The resulting wall measurements, roof measurements, measurements of areas missing from the wall used to generate a wall estimate report, or a combined roof and wall estimate report including various different identifiers indicating the different features and measurements based on the three-dimensional model.

BACKGROUND

1. Technical Field

This invention is in the field of building size estimation, and in particular, building wall area estimation.

2. Description of the Related Art

The square footage measurements of a building walls are used as a main factor in quickly estimating costs of materials and labor to repair or replace walls of the building and make other improvements or modifications to the entire building (e.g., to estimate the cost of siding materials to re-side a house). Thus, accurate wall area measurements are instrumental in these calculations. Current methods of measuring wall area often involve a person having to visit the building and manually measure particular dimensions of the building, or by referring to original plans or blueprints of the building. Manually measuring the dimensions for calculation of building wall area is costly and/original plans for the building may be unavailable or out of date. Therefore, accurate methods for estimating and verifying wall area that avoid these drawbacks are desirable.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one embodiment, a wall area estimation system generates an estimated wall area measurement of a building based on the received roof measurements and a reference distance. The reference distance may initially be a default value such as that corresponding to the typical height of an exterior wall of a single story building or, alternatively, a measurement indicative of a distance between the roof and a model ground surface placed on an image of the building where the exterior walls of the building appear to meet the ground at building foundation. This reference distance may be used to determine how far down to extend the walls of the building when building a digital three-dimensional model of the building to aid in generating wall area measurements.

The wall area measurement estimation system may be a system integrated with a roof estimation system or other system that provides roof measurements. In other embodiments, the roof area measurements may be provided by an external source, system or entity, or may be input manually by an operator of the wall area measurement estimation system.

The resulting wall measurements, roof measurements, measurements of areas missing from the wall, etc., generated by the wall estimation system may be used to generate a wall estimate report, or a combined roof and wall estimate report. The estimate report may include various different identifiers indicating different features and measurements displayed on images and/or line drawings of the building and/or in different areas of the report based on the generated three-dimensional model of the building.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

The patent or application file contains at least one drawing executed in color. Copies of this patent or patent application publication with color drawing(s) will be provided by the Office upon request and payment of the necessary fee.

FIG. 1A is a flow diagram showing an example method of generating an estimated wall area measurement, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 1B is a flow diagram showing an example method that may be included as part of the step of generating the estimated wall measurement of the building in the method shown in FIG. 1A, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 1C is a flow diagram showing an example method of generating an estimated wall area measurement using a first and a second aerial image of the building, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 2A is an example screenshot of a user interface of a system for generating wall area measurements showing a three-dimensional model of the roof, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIGS. 2B and 2C are example screenshots of the user interface of the system used in FIG. 2A for generating wall area measurements, each showing an example model planar surface of the ground or foundation, respectively, for two different example buildings.

FIG. 2D is an example screenshot of the user interface of the system used in FIG. 2A for generating wall area measurements showing a three-dimensional model of the building generated using the three-dimensional model of the roof shown in FIG. 2B and a placement of the planar surface of the ground or foundation under the roof, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an example screenshot of the user interface of the system used in FIG. 2A for generating wall area measurements showing a north side perspective view of the three-dimensional model of the building of FIG. 2D overlaid on an image of the building, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an example screenshot of the user interface of the system used in FIG. 2A for generating wall area measurements showing an east side perspective view of the three-dimensional model of the building of FIG. 2D overlaid on an image of the building on the right side of the image and a north side elevational view on the left side, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an example screenshot of the user interface of the system used in FIG. 2A for generating wall area measurements showing a west side perspective view of the three-dimensional model of the building of FIG. 2D overlaid on an image of the building on the right side and a west side elevational view on the left, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 6 is an example screenshot of the user interface of the system used in FIG. 2A for generating wall area measurements showing a top plan view of the three-dimensional model of the building of FIG. 2D on the left and an east side perspective view on the right, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 7 is an example screenshot of the user interface of the system used in FIG. 2A for generating wall area measurements showing selection of a building wall of the three-dimensional model of the building of FIG. 2D, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 8 is an example screenshot of the user interface of the system used in FIG. 2A for generating wall area measurements showing removal of the selected building wall of the three-dimensional model of the building of FIG. 7, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a computing environment in which systems and methods for estimation of building wall area may be implemented or of which they may be a part.

FIG. 10A is a first page of a non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 10B is a second page of a non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 10C is a third page of a non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 10D is a fourth page of a non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 10E is a fifth page of a non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 10F is a sixth page of a non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 10G is a seventh page of a non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 10H is an eighth page of a non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 10I is a ninth page of a non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 10J is a tenth page of a non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 10K is a eleventh page of a non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 10L is a twelfth page of a non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 10M is a thirteenth page of a non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 10N is a fourteenth page of a non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 10O is a fifteenth page of a non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 10P is a sixteenth page of a non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 11A is a first page of second non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 11B is a second page of a second non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 11C is a third page of a second non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 11D is a fourth page of a second non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 11E is a fifth page of a second non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 11F is a sixth page of a second non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 11G is a seventh page of a second non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 11H is an eighth page of a second non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 11I is a ninth page of a second non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 11J is a tenth page of a second non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 11K is a eleventh page of a second non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 11L is a twelfth page of a second non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 11M is a thirteenth page of a second non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1A is a flow diagram showing an example method 100 of generating an estimated wall area measurement, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

While each of the steps shown in FIG. 1A contributes to the overall solution, each can be used independently or in various combinations to yield improvements in estimating wall area measurements as discussed below. Below is an overview of each step in the process, which will be followed by a more detailed discussion of each step.

At 102, the process receives roof measurements of a building having a roof. These measurements may be estimated or actual dimensional and/or area measurements of the roof such as one or more of: roof edge lengths, ridge lengths, gable lengths, hip lengths, valley lengths, roof section pitch, roof area measurements, planar roof section area measurements, planar roof section dimension measurements, etc. These roof measurements may be generated internally by a component of a system that estimates wall area measurements (i.e., a wall area measurement estimation system) and received from such an internal component, or may be generated and received from an external component or entity separate from the wall area measurement estimation system. In some embodiments, the external component is located remotely from the wall area measurement estimation system.

For example, in some embodiments, the wall area measurement estimation system may be a system integrated with a roof estimation system or other system that provides roof measurements. In other embodiments, the roof area measurements may be provided by an external source, system or entity, or may be input manually by an operator of the wall area measurement estimation system.

At 104, the process receives a reference distance. This reference distance is a measurement indicative of a distance between a reference point on the roof and a ground surface. In one embodiment, the reference distance is, or may initially be set at, a default value that corresponds to the height of an exterior wall of a typical single story building (namely, a default distance is used representing a distance between a point corresponding to approximately where an external wall meets the roof along or near a lower horizontal edge of a roof and a point on the ground or on a building foundation vertically beneath that point on the roof).

In one embodiment, this default value is the initial set value and as more data becomes available by actual measurements, it is changed to a new value and the calculations of wall area or done again.

In another embodiment, the reference distance is, or may initially be set at, a measurement indicative of a distance between a reference point on the roof and a surface on which the building rests, such as, the ground or a building foundation. The distance is determined via a placement of a graphical user interface element representing a model planar ground surface at a position beneath a graphical user interface element representing a digital three-dimensional model of the roof. For example, the reference distance is, or may initially be set at, a measurement indicative of a vertical distance between a reference point on the roof corresponding to where an exterior wall meets the roof and a model planar ground surface representing the ground or building foundation placed on an image of the building corresponding to where one or more of the exterior walls of the building appear to meet the ground or building foundation in the image. This reference distance may be used to determine how far down to extend the walls of the building from the roof to reach ground level when building a three-dimensional model of the building to aid in generating wall area measurements.

In particular, at 106 the process generates an estimated wall area measurement of the building based on the received roof measurements and the reference distance. The roof measurements may be generated by the roof estimation system described in one or more of: U.S. Pat. No. 8,078,436 issued Dec. 13, 2011, entitled “AERIAL ROOF ESTIMATION SYSTEMS AND METHODS” (hereinafter, referred to as the '436 patent); U.S. Pat. No. 8,209,152 filed May 15, 2009, entitled “CONCURRENT DISPLAY SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR AERIAL ROOF ESTIMATION” (hereinafter, referred to as the '152 patent); U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/019,228 filed Feb. 1, 2011 and entitled “GEOMETRIC CORRECTION OF ROUGH WIREFRAME MODELS DERIVED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS” (hereinafter, referred to as the '228 application); U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/594,964, filed Feb. 3, 2012 and entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ESTIMATION OF BUILDING FLOOR AREA” (hereinafter, referred to as the '964 application); U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/594,956, filed Feb. 3, 2012 and entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ESTIMATION OF BUILDING WALL AREA” (hereinafter, referred to as the '956 application); and U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, filed February ______, 2013 and entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ESTIMATION OF FLOOR BUILDING AREA” (Attorney Docket No. 290115.40901 and hereinafter, referred to as the application), which are each incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

Additionally, it is expressly contemplated that any operable combination of one or more of any of the features or components of the estimation systems, measurement systems and/or reports described or shown in, but not limited to: the; the '436 patent; the '244 application; the '152 patent; the '228 application; the '964 application; the '956 application; and/or the ______ application (Attorney Docket No. 290116.40901); may be integrated and/or used with, or in, any operable combination of one or more of any of the features or components of the wall estimation systems and/or reports described or shown herein, and are operably included in various different embodiments.

In many such embodiments, one or more of the roof measurements are based on aerial photographs of the building via manual or automated analysis of roof features, such as by using the roof estimation system and/or other modules described in one or more of the; the '436 patent; the '244 application; the '152 patent; the '228 application; the '964 application; the '956 application; and/or the ______ application (Attorney Docket No. 290115.40901). Thus, utilizing some embodiments described herein, one may estimate wall area measurements of a building merely using one or more aerial photographs of the building, with little or no additional information initially needed.

FIG. 1B is a flow diagram showing an example method 110 that may be included as part of the step of generating the estimated wall measurement of the building in the method shown in FIG. 1A, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

While each of the steps shown in FIG. 1B contributes to the overall solution, each can be used independently or in various combinations to yield improvements in estimating wall area measurements as discussed below.

At 112, the process initially includes the three-dimensional model of the roof described above as part of a three-dimensional model of the building.

At 114, the process generates a wall in the three-dimensional model of the building by extending the wall from along an edge of the roof toward the ground surface. In particular, the wall area estimation system extends the wall a distance until either intersecting a level of the ground surface, according to the received measurement indicative of the distance between the reference point on the roof and the ground surface, or intersecting another surface of the roof, according to the three-dimensional model of the roof. In this manner, both the dimensions and shape of the wall may be built within the three-dimensional model of the building. For example, this may include a triangular shape of the wall underneath a roof gable, a section of the wall between two levels, planar surfaces or facets of the roof, etc. This process may be repeated for each exterior wall of the building to build a three-dimensional model of the building including, for example, a combined three-dimensional model of the roof and exterior walls of the building.

At 116, the process uses dimensions of the wall generated in the three-dimensional model of the building to determine an area of the wall. This also may be repeated for each wall such that a total wall area for the entire building may be generated.

This three-dimensional model of the building may be rendered within a graphical user interface of the wall estimation system. The graphical user interface provides selectable user interface elements within the graphical user interface configured to be placed by a user on areas of walls of the building within the three-dimensional model. These graphical user interface elements represent areas missing from the wall such as doors or windows which are not to be included in the total wall area measurement. These graphical user interface elements may have dimensions corresponding to these areas missing from the wall and may also be adjustable by the user. The graphical user interface elements may also have initial dimensions corresponding to those of an expected window size or an expected door size (e.g., standard or typical window or door sizes). Once placed on the rendered three-dimensional model, the wall area measurements will be automatically adjusted accordingly, corresponding to the area associated with each respective element placed on three-dimensional model.

FIG. 1C is a flow diagram showing an example method 120 of generating an estimated wall area measurement using a first and a second aerial image of the building, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

At step 122 the process receives a first and a second aerial image of a building having a roof, each of the aerial images providing a different view of the roof of the building.

At 124, the process correlates the first aerial image with the second aerial image. This correlation process is described in one or more of the; the '436 patent; the '244 application; the '152 patent; the '228 application; the '964 application; the '956 application; and/or the ______ application (Attorney Docket No. 290116.40901). In some embodiments, correlating the aerial images may include registering pairs of points on the first and second aerial images, each pair of points corresponding to substantially the same point on the roof depicted in each of the images. Correlating the aerial images may be based at least in part on input received from a human operator and/or automatic image processing techniques.

For example, the process may identify a set of reference points in each of the images. The process then uses these reference points and any acceptable algorithm to co-register the images and reconstruct the three-dimensional geometry of the object (e.g., a building roof) identified by the reference points. There are a variety of photogrammetric algorithms that can be utilized to perform this reconstruction. One such algorithm which may be utilized by the process uses photographs taken from two or more view points to “triangulate” points of interest on the object in three-dimensional space. This triangulation can be visualized as a process of projecting a line originating from the location of the photograph's observation point that passes through a particular reference point in the image. The intersection of these projected lines from the set of observation points to a particular reference point identifies the location of that point in three-dimensional space. Repeating the process for all such reference points allows the software to build a three-dimensional model of the structure.

At 126 the process generates a three-dimensional model of the roof that includes a plurality of planar roof sections that each has a corresponding slope, area, and edges. This three-dimensional model of the roof is generated based at least in part on the correlation between the first and second aerial images, examples of which are also described in one or more of the; the '436 patent; the '244 application; the '152 patent; the '228 application; the '964 application; the '956 application; and/or the ______ application (Attorney Docket No. 290116.40901). For example, in some embodiments, generating the three-dimensional model may be based, at least in part, on indications of features of the roof, such as valleys, ridges, edges, planes, etc. Generating the three-dimensional model may also be based at least in part on input received from a human operator (e.g., indications of roof ridges and valleys) and/or automatic image processing techniques.

At 128 the process generates an estimated wall area measurement of the building. This estimated wall area measurement is generated based at least in part on the three-dimensional model of the roof and a measurement indicative of the distance between a reference point on the roof and the ground surface. For example, this reference distance may be used by the wall area estimation system to determine how for down to extend the walls of the building (e.g., to a ground level) when building a three-dimensional model of the building

In some embodiments, the entire process, or nearly the entire process, of generating estimated wall areas is automated by the system automatically recognizing these particular building features and ground features in one or more images of the building through image analysis that utilizes typical characteristics of such features as viewed from the various angles of those in the one or more images.

FIGS. 2A through 8 show example screen shots of a graphical user interface of the system for generating wall area measurements at various points in the process of building the three-dimensional model of the building and generating the wall measurements (e.g., as described above with reference to FIGS. 1A-1C).

FIG. 2A is an example screenshot 200 of a user interface of a system for generating wall area measurements showing a three-dimensional model of the roof 210, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

Shown is a graphical user interface including two panels. The right panel 204 is displaying an aerial image of a building showing a top oblique view 206 of the building and the left panel 202 is displaying an interactive three-dimensional model of the roof 210 of the building. Also note that the three-dimensional model of the roof 210 is overlaid on the roof of the building shown in the aerial image 206 on the right panel 204 in accordance with the particular angle of the top oblique view 206 of the building. This roof model may also be an interactive model that can be moved, rotated, adjusted or otherwise manipulated in various manners by the user via a mouse, touch screen or other input device such that it is overlaid on the roof of the building shown in the image 206 in a position and angle of view corresponding to the position and angle of view of the roof shown in the image 206. In one embodiment, the interactive three-dimensional model of the roof 210 is rendered in the position on the image 206 overlaid on the roof of the building as shown in the image 206 in response to a user selecting the “create upper” button 214 shown in the screenshot 200.

The three-dimensional model of the roof 210 shown in FIG. 2A may be used in the part of the process 100 shown in FIG. 1A which receives roof measurements of the building. For example, the roof measurements of the building referenced in process 100 may be those defined by the three-dimensional model of the roof 210. Also, the three-dimensional model of the roof 210 is an example of a three-dimensional model of a roof which may be included as part of the three-dimensional model of the building described above in process 110 of FIG. 1B.

FIGS. 2B and 2C are example screenshots 220 and 225, respectively, of the user interface of the system of FIG. 2A for generating wall area measurements, each showing an example model planar surface of the ground or foundation, respectively, for two different example buildings. Shown in FIG. 2B is a model planar ground surface 216 in the shape a footprint of the building shown in image 206. In FIG. 2B, the example model planar ground surface 216 is rendered under a three-dimensional model of the roof 210 of the building shown in image 206 and, in FIG. 2C, an example model planar ground surface 217 in the shape of the footprint of a different example building is overlaid on the different example building shown in image 207.

In some embodiments, the estimation of the model planar ground surface 217 need not be planar. The ground could just as well be modeled by a more complex surface. Also, in some embodiments, computation and placement of the ground can be done in an automated fashion and not done by “user placement”. For example, the system described herein may determine the ground surface (not necessarily planar) and the placement of the ground relative to the roof, e.g., an automatic or system-assisted determination of the eave to ground distance. This could also be done with methods for roof estimation during the registration process of registering corresponding or matching points on two different images of the roof, if ground points (as well as the roof points) participate in the registration and are then subsequently fit to a surface to estimate a surface model of the ground. These alternative methods also do not necessarily require visibility of the house-to-ground intersection. If the ground (plane or complex surface) is determined near to the house, the resulting ground surface can be extended (extrapolated or interpolated from surrounding areas determined to be ground level) by the system under the structure even if the base of the structure is covered with bushes or otherwise obscured such that it would prevent a direct visible assessment by the user.

The screenshot 220 of FIG. 2B shows a user interface that may be displayed as part of the process 100 shown in FIG. 1A. For example the process may receive a measurement indicative of a distance between a reference point on a roof represented by the three-dimensional model of the roof 210 and the ground. As used herein, “ground” generally means any surface on which a building may rest (including a building foundation, platform, other substantially horizontal and/or flat surface or structure on which the building rests, etc.). In some embodiments, the measurement indicative of a distance between a reference point on the roof and the ground may be a distance corresponding to a default value of the typical wall height of a single story building.

Also, In some embodiments, this measurement may be received initially as user input or a default value corresponding to an estimated or approximate vertical distance between a point at or near a lower horizontal edge of the roof 210 (e.g., a roof eave) and the surface on which the building rests or appears to rest (e.g., the ground or building foundation) which, in some embodiments, may approximately correspond to the typical wall height of a single story building. For example, a typical wall height of a single story building may be 8 ft. to 8.5 ft, and thus, an example of the default value of the measurement indicative of a distance between a reference point on the roof 210 and the ground will correspond to a value in this range representing the typical wall height of a single story building. However, this default value may vary in different embodiments and may also be selectable and/or configurable by the user (e.g., to be a default value corresponding to the typical height of a two story building or other value).

In some embodiments, a user may indicate a reference point on the ground in the image 206 shown in the right panel 204 (e.g., by a mouse click or other selection) to provide this measurement. For example, the reference point may be at a point on image 206 selected by the user corresponding to a location where the building wall would appear or is visually estimated to meet the ground, represented by point 227. Although the oblique angle of view of the three-dimensional model of the roof 210 shown overlaid on image 206 is different than the angle of view of the of the line drawing of the three-dimensional model of the roof 210 shown in panel 202, these views may be selected to match. In some embodiments these views may be selectively locked such that, when selected to do so, the angle of view of the of the three-dimensional model of the roof 210 shown overlaid on the image 206 is always the same as the angle of view of the of the line drawing of the three-dimensional model of the roof 210 shown in panel 202 until there is no longer a selection to do so.

Using reference point 227, the system will calculate the distance represented by dashed line 223 from the selected reference point 227 on the ground to the point 229 above the ground on the roof, on the three-dimensional model of the roof 210. This will be a point vertically above the ground within the three-dimensional reference framework of the three-dimensional model of the roof 210, according to how three-dimensional model of the roof 210 as it is overlaid on the image 206. For example, point 227 represents to the system a point where the ground meets the building wall that is potentially visible according to the angle of view of the three-dimensional model of the roof 210 as overlaid on the image 206.

According to the position and angle of view of the three-dimensional model of the roof 210 as overlaid on the image 206, the system then calculates the vertical distance 223 from point 227 to a planar surface or edge, point 229, of the three-dimensional model of the roof 210 directly above point 227 within the three-dimensional reference framework of the three-dimensional model of the roof 210. Since the image data with the photograph has a measure scale that provides the length distance of one pixel, the length of line 223 on the image 206 in pixels is an indication of the wall height. For example, one pixel in the image may be equal to six inches, ten inches, one foot, or another value of the actual physical building. The pixel-to-physical length data is part of the image data which is provided with the image in the digital file and is, thus, easily available. The received measurement of distance 223 is therefore indicative of a distance between a reference point on the roof and a reference point on the ground that will be used as the starting point for the calculated distance of the wall height.

The selection of this reference point 227 on the ground may additionally or alternatively be performed by automated image analysis detecting the transition between a wall of the building and the ground in one or more perspective or oblique images of the of the building. For example, this detection of transitions between the wall of the building and the ground may be performed at locations or sections of the image vertically under a roof eave or gable potentially visible according to the position and angle of view of the three-dimensional model of the roof 210 as overlaid on the image 206 to facilitate or aid in the selection a reference point on the ground.

The determination of the wall height can be performed at any location from any side where the ground is visible in the photographic image of the roof. For example, it can be done from each of the north, south, east and west views. Since the ground might slope from one side of the home to the other side, a measurement of each side is the most accurate. Alternatively, if the one side of the house does not provide a clear view of the ground where the wall of the home meets the ground, as might be the case if a deck, trees, bushes or other obstruction is present, the software program can use the height measurement to the next adjacent wall with which it forms a corner as the height value of the wall. As a further alternative, if one wall is measured, this one measurement can be accepted as being the same for all walls unless the operator indicates that some walls are of a different height.

Some homes built on a slope will have a one-story front wall and a two-story back wall and the side walls will gradually increase in height from the front to the back. Of those types of homes, the front wall height is measured or estimated, the back wall height is measured or estimated, and then the height of each side wall is set to be that of the front wall at its front corner and that of the back wall at its back corner, and to increase in a linear measure between the two.

In response to the user selecting the “create lower” button 222 shown on screenshot 220, the wall area estimation system will render the model planar surface of the ground 216 (e.g., as the shape of the building footprint) in the corresponding area underneath the three-dimensional model of the roof 210 in panel 202 at some distance below the three-dimensional model of the roof 210. Shown in panel 202 on the left of the user interface in screenshot 220, the planar surface of the ground 216 is automatically rendered to scale as the shape of the building footprint and is rendered such that it is shown from the same angle of view as that of the line drawing of the three-dimensional model of the roof 210 shown in the panel 202. The shape of the building footprint may be determined initially by the system as the shape of the outside perimeter of a top down view of the three-dimensional model of the roof 210, for example, the top down view of the three dimensional model 224 in panel 202 in FIG. 6, or by existing known building measurements. The planar surface of the ground 216 having the shape of the building footprint is rendered such that the corners of the planar surface of the ground 216 forming the shape of the building footprint initially line up vertically beneath the corresponding corners of the perimeter of the three-dimensional model of the roof 210 within the three-dimensional reference framework of the three-dimensional model of the roof 210.

In the example embodiment shown in FIG. 2B, the planar surface of the ground 216 in the shape of the building footprint is rendered in the left panel 202 of the user interface in screenshot 220 at a distance under the roof 210 equal to or based on the received measurement indicative of the distance between the reference point 229 on the roof and the ground, point 227, as described above. In some embodiments, the measurement indicative of the distance between the reference point on the roof and the ground may be an arbitrary default value or may be based on other characteristics of the image 206 and/or the three-dimensional model of the roof 210 overlaid on the image 206. Thus, in some embodiments, the distance below the three-dimensional model of the roof 210 at which the planar surface of the ground 216 is initially rendered may be an arbitrary default value or may be based on other characteristics of the image 206 and/or the three-dimensional model of the roof 210 overlaid on the image 206.

In addition to the planar surface of the ground 216 in the shape of the building footprint being rendered in the left panel 202 of the user interface in screenshot 220, it is also overlaid at a corresponding position on the image of the building 206 such that it is shown from the same angle of view as the view of the building shown in the image 206. In FIG. 2B, the planar surface of the ground 216 is not shown overlaid on the example image 206 in FIG. 2B because it would be somewhat obscured by the example red-colored translucent three-dimensional model of the roof 210 that is also overlaid on image 206. However, FIG. 2C shows an example of a different building for which a planar surface of the ground 217 having the shape of the building footprint is overlaid on an image 207 of the building. In FIG. 2C, the planar surface of the ground 217 having the shape of the building footprint is overlaid on the image 207 of the building below a three-dimensional model of the roof 221 of that building that is also overlaid on the image 207, but which is has transparent roof sections such that the overlaid planar surface of the ground 217 having the shape of the building footprint it is not obscured by the overlaid three-dimensional model of the roof 221. In particular, the planar surface of the ground 217 in FIG. 2C, having the shape of the building footprint, is automatically overlaid on the image 207 such that it is shown from the same angle of view of the example building as shown in image 207.

The planar surface of the ground 216 is an adjustable user interface control such that the user may change the location, size and/or orientation of the planar surface of the ground 216 relative to the three-dimensional model of the roof 210 to match that of the ground relative to the roof of the building in the image 206 showing an oblique view of the building. Likewise, the same adjustable user interface control functionality described above applies to the planar surface of the ground 217 shown overlaid on the image 207 of the example building of FIG. 2C with respect to the to the three-dimensional model of the roof 221 of that building overlaid on the image 207 of that building.

The user may move, manipulate, correct and/or rotate the line drawing of the three-dimensional model of the roof 210 and planar surface of the ground 216, or a portion thereof (e.g., individual line segments), shown in user interface panel 202 together or individually using a mouse, touch screen, or other input device. Similarly, the user may move, manipulate and/or rotate the line drawing of the three-dimensional model of the roof 210 overlaid on the image of the roof 206 shown in panel 204 and a planar surface of the ground 216 which may also be overlaid on image 206 or in image 207 of FIG. 2C, or a portion thereof, together or individually using a mouse, touch screen, or other input device. Accordingly, when such movement, manipulation, correction and/or rotation occurs to the three-dimensional model of the roof 210 and/or planar surface of the ground 216 shown on one user interface panel 202, an equivalent corresponding movement, manipulation, correction and/or rotation occurs to the three-dimensional model of the roof 210 and/or planar surface of the ground 216 shown in the other user interface panel 204. These equivalent corresponding movements, manipulations, corrections and/or rotations occur substantially simultaneously. However, in other embodiments, these equivalent corresponding movements, manipulations, corrections and/or rotations may occur substantially concurrently, soon after a corresponding equivalent action, or subsequent to a corresponding equivalent action.

For example, if the user moves the line drawing of the three-dimensional model of the roof 210 within the user interface panel 202, a corresponding movement to the line drawing of the three-dimensional model of the roof 210 overlaid on the image 206 will occur as carried out by the software. Likewise, if the user moves the planar surface of the ground 216 within the user interface panel 202, a corresponding movement to a planar surface of the ground 216 overlaid on the image 206 will occur, not shown in FIG. 2B, but see, e.g., the planar surface of the ground 217 overlaid on the corresponding image 207 in the example shown in FIG. 2C. Also, in some alternative embodiments, there may be an option selectable by the user to lock together the line drawing of the three-dimensional model of the roof 210 and the planar surface of the ground 216 having the shape of the building footprint underneath it, such that movement by the user of one causes the movement of the other, either within in the same panel or both panels, for example, in both user interface panels 202 and 204.

The surfaces defined by the line drawing of the three-dimensional model of the roof 210 may be transparent, as shown in panel 202, a solid color or may be a translucent color as shown on image 206 in user interface panel 204 to draw attention to the line drawing of the three-dimensional model of the roof 210 or differentiate the line drawing of the three-dimensional model of the roof 210 from other features or objects in the image 206 or other objects. Likewise, the planar surface of the ground 216, which may be overlaid on the image 206 (see, e.g., planar surface of the ground 217 overlaid on image 207 in FIG. 2C) may be transparent, a solid color or may be a translucent color as shown in user interface panel 202 (see also, e.g., planar ground surface 217 in image 207 in FIG. 2C). This coloring may be to draw attention to or differentiate the planar surface of the ground 216 from other features or objects in the image 206 or other objects. Also, the surfaces defined by line drawing of the three-dimensional model of the roof 210 and the planar surface of the ground 216 may be differently highlighted, differently colored, or otherwise differently marked with respect to each other to differentiate those objects from themselves or other objects.

As an additional example, FIG. 2C, as explained above, is an example screenshot 225 of the user interface of the system of FIG. 2A for generating wall area measurements showing a planar ground surface 217 overlaid on an image 207 of an oblique view of a different example building. In the example shown in FIG. 2C, in response to the user selecting the “create lower” button 222 shown on screenshot 225, the wall area estimation system renders the planar surface of the ground 217 having the shape of and representing the footprint of the building such that the planar surface of the ground 217 is overlaid in the corresponding area vertically under the model of the roof 221 of the building on the image 207. For example, this may be according to the default value corresponding to the wall height of a typical one story house or building, which height might be 8 feet, 9 feet, 10 feet, or another value. The planar ground surface 217 overlaid on an image 207 may then be adjusted by the user by the system enabling the user to drag the planar surface of the ground 217 within the image 207 using a mouse or other input device to an area on the image 207 corresponding to where the walls of the building in the image intersect the ground or building foundation shown in image 207 of the building.

Namely, as shown in FIG. 2C, a default value is used as a starting point for the height of the wall and, thus, used for a first rendering of the house. The created image is then overlaid on one or more photographic images to determine if it matches and adjustments made, if needed, to have the created image more accurately match the photographic image.

In one embodiment, the planar surface of the ground 217 representing the footprint of the building is visually slidable only along a vertical axis represented by parallel vertical lines 219 with respect to a three-dimensional model of the roof 221 having a corresponding angle of view to the oblique view of the building shown in the image 207. In this way, the user is able to adjust the vertical position of the planar surface of the ground 217 representing the footprint of the building under the transparent three-dimensional model of the roof 221 of the building while keeping the corners of the planar surface of the ground 217 representing the building footprint in line with the corresponding corners of the three-dimensional model of the roof 221. In some embodiments, the planar surface of the ground 217 representing the footprint of the building is selectively movable in any direction and the user may then selectively lock movement of the planar surface of the ground 217 representing the footprint of the building to restrict movement to be along a vertical axis, a perpendicular horizontal axis, or any other axis with respect to a three-dimensional model of the roof 221 overlaid on the image 207. Also, the planar surface of the ground 217 representing the footprint may be adjusted relative to the three-dimensional model of the roof 221 of the building without the three-dimensional model of the roof 221 of the building also actually being visually overlaid on any image of the building.

For split level homes, the planar surface of the ground 217 having the overall shape of the building footprint may be split into two or more sections at positions or lines indicated by the user which each have different vertical (i.e., elevation) positions with the three-dimensional reference framework of the three-dimensional model of the roof 221 as overlaid on image 221. These vertical positions may be defined by the user being able to move two or more sections of the planar surface of the ground 216 individually along vertical positions within the three-dimensional reference framework of the three-dimensional model of the roof 221, namely, along the vertical axis represented by a group of the parallel vertical lines 219). Each split section of the planar surface of the ground 217 may also be individually moved, manipulated, corrected and/or rotated within the three-dimensional reference framework defined by the position of the three-dimensional model of the roof 221 as overlaid on image 221.

As can be seen in FIG. 2B, reference point 229 on the roof is selected to be where the wall meets the roof and not at the edge of the roof. Thus, the length of the eave and the slope of the roof will not be a factor that might cause an error in the wall height measurement.

Referring again to FIG. 2C, as roofs of buildings often overhang the exterior walls of the building, such as at roof eaves, at other portions of the roof meeting building walls, etc., the location of the walls of the building may define an actual building footprint having an area and shape that may be smaller and/or different than that of the building footprint initially represented by the shape of the planar surface of the ground 217. If the overhang amount of the eaves can be easily determined, the initial floor footprint and wall location might be based on a top plan view, without accounting for the eave. This is due to the planar surface of the ground 217 having the shape of the building footprint being initially based on the outline of the three-dimensional model of the roof 221 roof as shown from a top plan view, also shown in image 209 in FIG. 2C of the three-dimensional model of the roof 221. Thus, one embodiment “erodes” the planar surface of the ground 217 having the shape of the building footprint by reducing the size of the line segments defining the planar surface of the ground 217 having the shape of the building footprint to account for roofs which often overhang the exterior walls. The adjusted line segments then may provide a more accurate indication of the actual position of the exterior walls of the building and the actual footprint of the building.

This reduction in the size of the line segments defining the planar surface of the ground 217 having the shape of the building footprint may be performed prior to the planar surface of the ground 217 being rendered or otherwise overlaid on the image 207 such that the line segments of the planar surface of ground 217 having the shape of the building footprint can be more accurately aligned with the actual locations of the exterior walls of the building on the ground shown in the image 207.

For example, shown in image 209 on panel 202 is the planar surface of the ground 217 having the shape of the building footprint overlaid on the image 217 showing a top plan, namely orthogonal, view of the building. As shown on image 209, the planar surface area of the ground 217 having the shape of the building footprint has been reduced. To do this, the length of the line segments defining the footprint have been reduced to account for the sections of the roof which overhang the exterior walls. The user may adjust the length of line segments of the planar surface of the ground 217 having the shape of the building footprint using an input device (mouse, touch screen, etc.) of the system based on a best estimate or also based on an identification of where such overhangs may be viewable in images of the roof of the same building, image 209 and/or image 207. This adjustment can be seen by comparing the blue line 217 that represents the building footprint or the ground with the roof edge 230 in FIG. 2C. Additionally or alternatively, the system may perform the adjustment of the planar surface of the ground 217 having the shape of the building footprint according to a default value corresponding to typical lengths that roofs overhang exterior walls (e.g., by 1.5 feet) and the number and length of roof features identified by the computer software, and/or by the user in the three-dimensional model of the roof 221 which are known to typically overhang an exterior wall for example, along roof edge 230, edges of the roof of the building shown in image 207 and 209 identified as roof eaves, etc.

In many embodiments, the reduction in the size of the line segments defining the planar surface of the ground 217 having the shape of the building footprint may be additionally and/or selectively performed at any point in the process described herein before exterior walls are added in generating a three-dimensional model of the building. For example, in one embodiment, when the user clicks the “create lower” button the initial non-reduced version of the planar surface of the ground 217 having the shape of the building footprint may be overlaid on corresponding areas of the building in oblique image 207 and/orthogonal image 209 as described above. If need be, the user first reduces the planar surface of the ground 217 having the shape of the building footprint by causing the system to perform an adjustment based on default or values input by the user and clicking the “erode” button 203.

Additionally or alternatively, the system adjusts the planar surface of the ground 217 having the shape of the building footprint on either or both of the images 207 and 209, namely, reduces the length of the line segments defining the footprint to account for the sections of the roof which overhang the exterior walls based on user input generated by the user using an input device to indicate to the system how much to reduce the line segments of the planar surface of the ground 217 having the shape of the building footprint. For example, this may be by the user clicking and dragging various line segment or corners of the planar surface of the ground 217 having the shape of the building footprint overlaid on the image 209 and/or the image 207. In many embodiments, the reduction in the size of the line segments defining the planar surface of the ground 217 having the shape of the building footprint may be additionally and/or selectively performed at any point in the process described herein in generating wall measurements.

FIG. 2D is an example screenshot 230 of the user interface of the system of FIG. 2A for generating wall area measurements showing a three-dimensional model of the building 224 generated using the three-dimensional model of the roof 210 and the planar surface of the ground 216 under the roof shown in FIG. 2B, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment.

For example, the screenshot 200 may be displayed as a first part of the process 110 shown in FIG. 1B in which the process generates a wall 226 in the three-dimensional model of the building 224 by extending the wall from along a corresponding edge of the roof 210 toward the planar surface of the ground 216 according to where the planar surface of the ground 216 is positioned by the system and/or by the user below the three-dimensional model of the roof 210 as described above.

In one embodiment screen shot 230 is created in response to a user selecting the “create walls” button 228, the wall area estimation system extends the wall 226 of the three-dimensional model of the building 224 a distance from an edge of the roof until either intersecting planar surface of the ground 216 or intersecting another surface of the roof, according to the three-dimensional model of the roof 210. Since the exact roof shape is provided as a known value at the start of the process, if the system is provided one wall measurement, variations of height of the wall based on the roof slope will be taken into account when the image of the wall is created. In this manner, both the dimensions and shape of the wall may be built within the three-dimensional model of the building 224. These may include, for example, a triangular shape of the wall 226 underneath a roof gable as shown in the three-dimensional model of the roof 210, or (as shown in FIG. 5) a section of a wall 502 between an upper planar section 506 of the roof and a different lower planar section 504 of the roof.

This process may be repeated for each exterior wall of the building by repeating the process for each edge of the roof based on that each edge of the roof potentially rests on top of or overhangs at least a portion of an exterior wall at locations on the roof directly above the line segments of the planar surface of the ground 216 having the shape of the building footprint to generate the three-dimensional model of the building 224. Additionally or alternatively, since each line segment of the planar surface of the ground 216 having the shape of the building footprint corresponds to a potential location of at least one exterior wall, the system may generate the walls in the three-dimensional model of the building based on inserting vertical planar surfaces, representing the exterior walls, filling in spaces between the line segments of the planar surface of the ground 216 having the shape of the building footprint and the three-dimensional model of the roof 210.

Once the three-dimensional model of the building 224 is generated, wall area calculations are performed by the system based on the size and shape of the walls of the building in the model 224. These wall area measurements may be displayed on the graphical user interface, such as on corresponding areas of the walls in three-dimensional model of the building 224, or anywhere else within the user interface. Also, the three-dimensional model of the building 224 may be rotated and viewed from any angle. For example, this angle may correspond to the angle of view in the aerial image displayed on the right panel 204 of the graphical user interface, such as shown in FIG. 3.

In particular, FIG. 3 is an example screenshot 300 of the user interface of the system of FIG. 2A for generating wall area measurements showing a north side perspective view of the three-dimensional model of the building 224 on panel 204 and panel 202, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment. Note, however, the compass indicator 303 on panel 202 indicates the direction the viewer is facing according to the angle of view of the three-dimensional model of the building 224 shown in panel 202, whereas the building face indicator 305, indicates generally the direction the face of the building largely shown in the image in panel 204 is facing. The building face indicator 305, indicates generally the direction the face of the building largely shown in the image in panel 204 is facing according to the angle of view of the building shown in shown in panel 204 and/or the angle of view of the three-dimensional model of the building 224 as overlaid on the building in the image shown in panel 204. Various other views from different angles and sides (e.g., south, east and west views; plan, elevation and side views, etc.) may also be rendered and displayed in the left panel 202 and the corresponding right panel 204 which may or may not include the corresponding image of the building.

As shown in FIG. 4 though FIG. 6, the view of the three-dimensional model of the building 224 may be different in panel 202 and panel 204 and selectable by the user by rotating the respective three-dimensional model of the building 224 in the respective panel 202 or panel 204. For example, FIG. 4 is an example screenshot 400 of the user interface of the system of FIG. 2A showing an east side perspective view of the three-dimensional model of the building 224 in the image on panel 204 and a south side elevation view of the three-dimensional model of the building 224 on panel 202.

FIG. 5 is an example screenshot 500 of the user interface of the system of FIG. 2A showing a west side perspective view of the three-dimensional model of the building 224 in the image on panel 204 and a west side elevation view of the three-dimensional model of the building 224 on panel 202. Note the lower section of the roof 504 and wall section 502 between the lower section of the roof 504 and the upper section of the roof 506 on the west facing side of the building are visible because, in the example embodiment shown, the building walls of the three-dimensional model of the building 224 on panel 202 are transparent or translucent.

FIG. 6 is an example screenshot 600 of the user interface of the system of FIG. 2A showing a top plan view of the three-dimensional model of the building 224 on panel 202 and an east side perspective view of the three-dimensional model of the building 224 in the image on panel 204. The three-dimensional model of the building 224 shown in FIG. 2D though FIG. 7 can be manipulated by the user or automatically by the system in various manners to effect changes to the model, which result in automatic corresponding changes to the wall area measurements based on the walls of the generated building model 224.

For example, FIG. 7 is a screenshot 700 of the user interface of the system of FIG. 2A for generating wall area measurements showing selection of a building wall 226 of the three-dimensional model of the building 224, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment. As shown in FIG. 7, the user has moved the cross hair cursor 203 to select the wall 226 of the three-dimensional model of the building 224. Note the selected wall is highlighted in panel 202 as shown in FIG. 7.

FIG. 8 is an example screenshot 800 of the user interface of the system of FIG. 2A for generating wall area measurements showing removal of the selected building wall 226 of the three-dimensional model of the building 224 of FIG. 7, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment. Once the wall is removed, it is also removed from the three-dimensional model of the building 224 overlaid on the image of the building in the right panel 204, causing the tree 802 previously blocked by the wall 226 to be revealed in the image. As a result, the total area of all the walls of the house as measured by the computer system may be reduced by the area of the wall 226 that was removed from the building model 224. The user may also select and remove sections of the wall where windows, doors or other openings exist by selecting the area, for example, using the cursor 203 or placing a graphical user interface element representing the shape of such a feature on a wall of the building model 224.

In some embodiments, as shown above, multiple panels of the user interface may each show a different view of the three-dimensional model of the building 224. When the user changes the model using the graphical user interface in any one panel, the corresponding change will appear in the other panels showing the change as seen from the different corresponding view of each respective panel. For example, if the user places a graphical user interface element representing a window on one of the walls of the three-dimensional model of the building 224, then that window will be visible from the different corresponding view of each respective panel. In this manner, the correct placement of the object or change to the three-dimensional model of the building 224 may be visually verified with the image of the building according to the angle of the building in the image.

In some embodiments, the cursor 203 itself is a line drawing of a planar surface in the shape of a graphical user interface element representing an object such as a square, circle, selected item, or selected building feature of a preset or selectable size, for example, the cursor can be the size of a window, door, front door, back door, garage door, sliding glass door, soffit, etc., such that when the cursor is placed on a planar surface that represents a wall of the three-dimensional model of the building 224, the angle of view of the line drawing of the selected object that is acting as the cursor 203 matches that of the planar surface of the three-dimensional model of the building 225 on which it is currently placed. In effect, the object acting as the cursor, in the shape of a window, door, etc., looks how it would if it were placed on the wall that the cursor is currently on according to the current angle of view of the wall. The user may then click a mouse button or otherwise indicate using an input device that the object that is acting as the cursor 203 is to be placed on and become part of the three-dimensional model of the building 224 at or near the current location of the cursor 203. The user may then resize the object that is representing a square, circle, widow, door, front door, back door, garage door, sliding glass door, soffit, etc., placed on the three-dimensional model of the building 224 using the cursor 203. This area can then be subtracted from the wall area measurement.

The use of cursor 203 is a quick and convenient way to subtract the area of a feature from the wall. For example, the cursor 203 can be placed in the shape of a door and then the operator can place this door on each wall at the true door location as shown in the images. By clicking the cursor 203, the area of the door will be automatically subtracted from the wall area. The same can be done for round windows, diamond windows, or other similar geometric shapes.

Often, the siding or other material placed on exterior walls of a building often does not extend up to the point where the exterior wall actually meets the roof. For example, a soffit is a horizontal underside of a roof overhang, namely, the overhang of roof eaves described above, and includes a horizontal piece of material extending between the outside of the exterior wall and the edge of the roof that overhangs the exterior wall. Often, the siding or other material placed on such an exterior wall is not installed on the area of the exterior wall that extends above this horizontal soffit piece of material since that area is hidden by the horizontal piece of material and the portion of the roof overhanging the exterior wall. Thus, to exclude the area of the exterior walls of the three-dimensional model of the building 224 on which siding is not typically installed, one embodiment the system will subtract from the wall areas calculations used for wall siding material estimation purposes, etc., the section of the wall(s) above the soffit.

In some embodiments, the section of a wall above a soffit is indicated on the rendered three-dimensional model of the building 224 such that the user can adjust the location and/or size of these areas. The system may, for example, initially assume a soffit exists where a horizontal edge of the roof overhangs the walls, the distance of the roof eaves, in the generated three-dimensional model of the building 224. Alternatively, the distance of the roof overhang may be set by the user and/or based on a typical roof overhang distance. In some embodiments, the user may indicate the sections of one or more walls above a soffit on the three dimensional model of the building 224 or otherwise input to the system data regarding locations of sections of one or more walls above a soffit.

The resulting wall measurements, roof measurements, measurements of areas missing from the wall, etc., generated by the wall estimation system may be used to generate a wall estimate report, or a combined roof and wall estimate report and/or a combined wall, floor and/or roof estimate report, etc. The estimate report may include various different identifiers indicating different features and measurements displayed on images and/or line drawings of the building and/or in different areas of the report based on the generated three-dimensional model of the building 224.

A non-limiting example of such reports are provided FIGS. 10A-10P and FIGS. 11A-11P attached hereto. In some embodiments, the three-dimensional model of the building 224 described herein, or some version thereof, may also be provided in the report. For example, the three-dimensional model of the building 224 may be overlaid on an image of the building in the report.

Also, these reports may include, but are not limited to including: identification of total lengths and areas of all the walls or individual walls; perspective, plan and elevation views of only the walls or the walls together with a transparent line drawings of the roof; the entire three-dimensional model of the building or sections thereof; shading of the walls to differentiate the walls from each other; lighter or darker shading of different walls in perspective views of the different walls depending on how close to the viewer the walls appear to be in the view; perspective, plan and elevation views of images of the building; perspective, plan and elevation views of images of the building with line drawings of the walls overlaid of the images; labeling on the perspective and elevation views of the walls based on the angle of view shown in the line drawing and/or labeling of the walls based on which walls are best visible in the angle of view shown in the line drawing; wall area of only the labeled walls that are best visible and/or based on percentage of visibility of non-transparent walls as shown in the line drawing; lengths of line segments defining the walls; perimeter measurements of walls, window, door building features on the wall or selected labeled walls; identification and total and/or individual vertical lengths of inside corners of intersecting exterior walls (e.g. corners on the outside of the building of angles less that 180 degrees); identification and total and/or individual vertical lengths of outside corners of the exterior intersecting walls (e.g. corners on the outside of the building having angles more than 180 degrees). The report may be communicated or provided electronically by the wall estimation system or other 3^(rd) party system in various configurations and formats required by the insurance, real estate and construction industries, and/or printed and mailed.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a computing environment in which systems and methods for estimation of building wall area may be implemented or of which they may be a part. For example, processes 100, 110 and 120 described above in conjunction with FIGS. 1A-1C may be performed or implemented by, for example, one or more software modules or components or any combination of suitable hardware, firmware or software components or devices including those that are a part of, stored in, or configure the computing environment of FIG. 9. Also, the graphical user interface functions and features of the wall area estimation system may be performed or implemented by, for example, one or more software modules or components or any combination of suitable hardware, firmware or software components or devices including those that are a part of, stored in, or configure the computing environment of FIG. 9.

The computing environment 900 will at times be referred to in the singular herein, but this is not intended to limit the embodiments to a single device since in typical embodiments there may be more than one computer system or device involved. Unless described otherwise, the construction and operation of the various blocks shown in FIG. 9 are of conventional design. As a result, such blocks need not be described in further detail herein, as they will be understood by those skilled in the relevant art.

The computing environment 900 may include one or more processing units 912 a, 912 b (collectively 912), a system memory 914 and a system bus 916 that couples various system components including the system memory 914 to the processing units 912. The processing units 912 may be any logic processing unit, such as one or more central processing units (CPUs) 912 a, digital signal processors (DSPs) 912 b, digital video or audio processing units such as coder-decoders (codecs) or compression-decompression units, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), etc. The system bus 916 can employ any known bus structures or architectures, including a memory bus with memory controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus. The system memory 914 includes read-only memory (“ROM”) 918 and random access memory (“RAM”) 920. A basic input/output system (“BIOS”) 922, which can form part of the ROM 918, contains basic routines that help transfer information between elements within the computing environment 900, such as during start-up.

The computing environment 900 may include a hard disk drive 924 for reading from and writing to a hard disk 926 (including a solid state memory device), an optical disk drive 928 for reading from and writing to removable optical disks 932, and/or a magnetic disk drive 930 for reading from and writing to magnetic disks 934. The optical disk 932 can be a CD-ROM, while the magnetic disk 934 can be a magnetic floppy disk or diskette.

The hard disk drive 924, optical disk drive 928 and magnetic disk drive 930 may communicate with the processing unit 912 via the system bus 916. The hard disk drive 924, optical disk drive 928 and magnetic disk drive 930 may include interfaces or controllers (not shown) coupled between such drives and the system bus 916, as is known by those skilled in the relevant art.

The drives 924, 928 and 930, and their associated computer-readable storage media 926, 932, 934, may provide nonvolatile and non-transitory storage of computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules and other data for the computing environment 900. Although the depicted computing environment 900 is illustrated employing a hard disk 924, optical disk 928 and magnetic disk 930, those skilled in the relevant art will appreciate that other types of computer-readable storage media that can store data accessible by a computer may be employed, such as magnetic cassettes, flash memory, solid state drives, digital video disks (“DVD”), Bernoulli cartridges, RAMs, ROMs, smart cards, etc. For example, computer-readable storage media may include, but is not limited to, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, compact disc ROM (CD-ROM), digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, solid state memory or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which may be accessed by processing unit 912 a.

Program modules can be stored in the system memory 914, such as an operating system 936, one or more application programs 938, other programs or modules 940 and program data 942. Application programs 938 may include instructions that cause the processor(s) 912 to perform generating digital roof models, generating roof and wall area measurements, and store and display input images or images generated by creating digital roof models and generating roof and wall area measurements, including the processes described herein. Other program modules 940 may include instructions for handling security such as password or other access protection and communications encryption. The system memory 914 may also include communications programs, for example, a Web client or browser 944 for permitting the computing environment 900 to access and exchange data including digital images, roof measurements and other building data with sources such as Web sites of the Internet, corporate intranets, extranets, or other networks and devices, as well as other server applications on server computing systems. The browser 944 in the depicted embodiment is markup language based, such as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Extensible Markup Language (XML) or Wireless Markup Language (WML), and operates with markup languages that use syntactically delimited characters added to the data of a document to represent the structure of the document. A number of Web clients or browsers are commercially available such as those from Mozilla, Google, and Microsoft of Redmond, Wash.

While shown in FIG. 9 as being stored in the system memory 914, the operating system 936, application programs 938, other programs/modules 940, program data 942 and browser 944 can be stored on the hard disk 926 of the hard disk drive 924, the optical disk 932 of the optical disk drive 928 and/or the magnetic disk 934 of the magnetic disk drive 930.

An operator can enter commands and information into the computing environment 900 through input devices such as a touch screen or keyboard 946 and/or a pointing device such as a mouse 948, and/or via a graphical user interface in order to receive, process, store and send data on which wall area measurement estimation has been or will be performed as described herein. Other input devices can include a microphone, joystick, game pad, tablet, scanner, etc. These and other input devices are connected to one or more of the processing units 912 through an interface 950 such as a serial port interface that couples to the system bus 916, although other interfaces such as a parallel port, a game port or a wireless interface or a universal serial bus (“USB”) can be used. A monitor 952 or other display device is coupled to the system bus 916 via a video interface 954, such as a video adapter which may be configured to display images used by or generated by wall area measurement estimation as described herein. The computing environment 900 can include other output devices, such as speakers, printers, etc.

The computing environment 900 can operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers and/or devices. For example, the computing environment 900 can operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more other computing systems, mobile devices and other service providers or information servers that provide the digital images in various format or by other electronic delivery methods. Communications may be via a wired and/or wireless network architecture, for instance wired and wireless enterprise-wide computer networks, intranets, extranets, telecommunications networks, cellular networks, paging networks, and other mobile networks.

FIGS. 10A-10P show a non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment. In particular, FIG. 10A is a first page of a non-limiting example of the wall estimate report. Shown in FIG. 10A is a top plan view of a 3D model of a roof of the building that is the subject of the wall estimate report in which facets appear as semi-transparent to reveal overhangs. Also shown is a property details section including roof measurements including total roof area, pitch of roof segments, total length measurements of ridges/hips, valleys, rakes, eaves, total wall area and total number of facets. A table of contents of the wall estimate report is listed in a Report Contents section in FIG. 10A including page designations for individual sections of the wall estimate report named: Images, Length Diagram, Pitch Diagram, Roof Area Diagram, Notes Diagram, 3D Wall Area Diagram, Alternative 3D Wall View, a Missing Wall Diagram, Elevation Diagrams and Report Summary.

FIG. 10B is a second page of a non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment. The Images section of the wall estimate report starts on FIG. 10B. Shown in FIG. 10B is an image of the building which is a photograph of the building showing a top substantially orthogonal view of the building and the roof of the building.

FIG. 10C is a third page of a non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment. Shown in FIG. 10C are two images of the building, which are each photographs of the building, one showing a top perspective (oblique) view of the north facing side of the building and the other one showing a top perspective (oblique) view of the south facing side of the building.

FIG. 10D is a fourth page of a non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment. Shown in FIG. 10D are two images of the building, which are each photographs of the building, one showing a top perspective (oblique) view of the east facing side of the building and the other one showing a top perspective (oblique) view of the west facing side of the building.

FIG. 10E is a fifth page of a non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment. Shown in FIG. 10E is a line drawing showing a top plan view of a 3D model of the roof of the building that is the subject of the wall estimate report which includes segment lengths shown on the report next to the applicable segment (rounded to the nearest whole number) over 5 feet. Plus signs preface some numbers to avoid confusion when rotated (e.g., +6 and +9). Roof ridges are shown drawn in red. Roof valleys are shown drawn in blue. Roof rakes are shown drawn in green. Roof eaves are shown drawn in black. Roof flashing is shown drawn in brown and any parapets would be shown drawn in grey. These color codes are shown in a top section of the page of FIG. 10E by coloring the text naming the roof feature and showing the total lengths of each roof feature in the corresponding color of the line segment(s) in the diagram of the corresponding different roof feature. There is a Detailed Length Diagram, in the Appendix at the end of the report shown on FIG. 10P.

FIG. 10F is a sixth page of a non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment. Shown in FIG. 10F is a line drawing showing a top plan view of a 3D model of the roof of the building. The pitches and associated arrows indicative of the direction of pitches for different roof segments are shown on the line drawing within each different corresponding roof segment on the line drawing.

FIG. 10G is a seventh page of a non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment. Shown in FIG. 10G is a line drawing showing a top plan view of a 3D model of the roof of the building. The areas of different roof segments are shown on the line drawing within each different corresponding roof segment on the line drawing. Also shown is a total number of and area of all the roof segments (i.e., roof facets).

FIG. 10H is an eighth page of a non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment. Shown in FIG. 10H is a Notes Diagram of the building roof including a line drawing showing a top plan view of a 3D model of the roof of the building. Labels from smallest to largest (A to Z) of different roof segments (i.e., facets) are shown on the line drawing within each different corresponding roof segment on the line drawing. The labels may be used to cross reference notes in a different area of the report related to each corresponding roof segment.

FIG. 10I is a ninth page of a non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment. Shown in FIG. 10I is a 3D Wall Area Diagram of the building including a line drawing showing a top perspective view of a 3D model of the walls of the south facing side of the building. Different planar walls surfaces of the building are shown being shaded differently from each other and the planar surfaces of the roof facets are shown as transparent. Also shown is a “Wall Area By Direction” chart showing estimated individual total areas of different walls surfaces, showing a categorization of the planar wall surfaces according to which direction the planar wall surfaces generally face, and showing a total estimated wall area of the planar wall surfaces for each category.

FIG. 10J is a tenth page of a non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment. Shown in FIG. 10J is a 3D Alternative Wall View Diagram of the building including a line drawing showing a top perspective view of a 3D model of the walls of the building showing the generally north facing and the generally west facing sides of the building. Different planar walls surfaces of the building are shown being shaded differently from each other and the planar surfaces of the roof facets are shown as transparent. Also shown is a “Wall Area By Direction” chart showing estimated individual total areas of different walls surfaces, showing a categorization of the planar wall surfaces according to which direction the planar wall surfaces generally face, and showing a total estimated wall area of the planar wall surfaces for each category.

FIG. 10K is an eleventh page of a non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment. Shown in FIG. 10K is a 3D Missing Wall Diagram of the building including a line drawing showing a top perspective view of a 3D model of the walls of the building showing the generally south facing side of the building. Different planar walls surfaces of the building are shown being shaded differently from each other and the planar surfaces of the roof facets are shown as transparent. Each section of a planar wall surface that is not counted in calculation of an area of the corresponding planar wall surface (i.e., a “missing” wall surface) is labeled on the line drawing within the corresponding area of the missing wall surface. Also shown is a “Missing Wall Measurements” chart showing estimated individual total areas of the different missing wall surfaces, showing a categorization of the missing wall surfaces according to which direction the wall of the missing wall surface generally faces, and showing a total estimated missing wall area of the missing wall surfaces for each category.

FIG. 10L is a twelfth page of a non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment. Shown in FIG. 10L is a “North Elevation Diagram” of a wall of the building including a line drawing showing an elevation view of the walls of the generally north facing side of the building. Different line segments of the walls and the missing surfaces of the walls of the generally north facing side of the building are labeled with corresponding lengths next to the corresponding line segment. Also shown are labels for the corresponding walls on the corresponding wall surface of each wall in the line drawing. For each of the walls shown in the line drawing, shown in a “North Elevation Details” chart is the wall label of the wall shown in the line drawing, a number of missing wall surfaces for the wall, an estimated individual total area of the different missing wall surfaces for the wall, and an estimated total area of the wall. Also shown in the “North Elevation Details” is the estimated total wall area of the walls labeled in the line drawing, the total number of missing wall surfaces of the walls labeled in the line drawing, and a total estimated missing wall area of the missing wall surfaces of the walls labeled in the line drawing.

FIG. 10M is a thirteenth page of a non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment. Shown in FIG. 10M is an “East Elevation Diagram” of a wall of the building including a line drawing showing an elevation view of the walls of the generally east facing side of the building. Different line segments of the walls and the missing surfaces of the walls of the generally east facing side of the building are labeled with corresponding lengths next to the corresponding line segment. Also shown are labels for the corresponding walls on the corresponding wall surface of each wall in the line drawing. For each of the walls shown in the line drawing, shown in an “East Elevation Details” chart is the wall label of the wall shown in the line drawing, a number of missing wall surfaces for the wall, an estimated individual total area of the different missing wall surfaces for the wall, and an estimated total area of the wall. Also shown in the “East Elevation Details” is the estimated total wall area of the walls labeled in the line drawing, the total number of missing wall surfaces of the walls labeled in the line drawing, and a total estimated missing wall area of the missing wall surfaces of the walls labeled in the line drawing.

FIG. 10N is a fourteenth page of a non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment. Shown in FIG. 10N is a “South Elevation Diagram” of a wall of the building including a line drawing showing an elevation view of the walls of the generally south facing side of the building. Different line segments of the walls and the missing surfaces of the walls of the generally south facing side of the building are labeled with corresponding lengths next to the corresponding line segment. Also shown are labels for the corresponding walls on the corresponding wall surface of each wall in the line drawing. For each of the walls shown in the line drawing, shown in a “South Elevation Details” chart is the wall label of the wall shown in the line drawing, a number of missing wall surfaces for the wall, an estimated individual total area of the different missing wall surfaces for the wall, and an estimated total area of the wall. Also shown in the “South Elevation Details” is the estimated total wall area of the walls labeled in the line drawing, the total number of missing wall surfaces of the walls labeled in the line drawing, and a total estimated missing wall area of the missing wall surfaces of the walls labeled in the line drawing.

FIG. 10O is a fifteenth page of a non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment. Shown in FIG. 10O is a “West Elevation Diagram” of a wall of the building including a line drawing showing an elevation view of the walls of the generally west facing side of the building. Different line segments of the walls and the missing surfaces of the walls of the generally west facing side of the building are labeled with corresponding lengths next to the corresponding line segment. Also shown are labels for the corresponding walls on the corresponding wall surface of each wall in the line drawing. For each of the walls shown in the line drawing, shown in a “West Elevation Details” chart is the wall label of the wall shown in the line drawing, a number of missing wall surfaces for the wall, an estimated individual total area of the different missing wall surfaces for the wall, and an estimated total area of the wall. Also shown in the “West Elevation Details” is the estimated total wall area of the walls labeled in the line drawing, the total number of missing wall surfaces of the walls labeled in the line drawing, and a total estimated missing wall area of the missing wall surfaces of the walls labeled in the line drawing.

FIG. 10P is a sixteenth page of a non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment. Shown in FIG. 10P is a Report Summary including a top plan view of a 3D model of the roof of the building that is the subject of the wall estimate report along with the total number of estimated roof facets used in the report for the roof. Shown also is a list of total lengths, areas and pitches for the roof, including total length and number of ridges, total length and number of hips, total length and number of valleys, total length and number of rakes, total length and number of eaves/starter, total length and number of drip edge lengths (eaves+rakes), an indication there are no parapet walls labeled, total length and number of flashing lengths, total length and number of step flashing lengths, total estimated roof area, predominant roof pitch measurement, total wall area, and total estimated number of wall facets used in the report for the roof. Also shown is the property location (e.g., location of the building) in terms of longitude and latitude coordinates above a notes section of the report.

FIGS. 11A-11M show a second non-limiting example of a wall estimate report, according to one non-limiting illustrated embodiment. In particular, FIG. 11A is a first page of a second non-limiting example of the wall estimate report. Shown in FIG. 11A is a top plan view of a 3D model of a roof of the building that is the subject of the second example wall estimate report in which facets appear as semi-transparent to reveal overhangs. A table of contents of the wall estimate report is listed in a Report Contents section in FIG. 11A including page designations for individual sections of the wall estimate report shown in corresponding FIGS. 11B-11M. these sections are named: Images, 3D Wall Area Diagram, Alternative 3D Wall View, Window and Door Diagrams, Report Summary and Additional Property Information.

The various embodiments described above can be combined to provide further embodiments. All of the U.S. patents, U.S. patent application publications, U.S. patent applications, foreign patents, foreign patent applications and non-patent publications referred to in this specification and/or listed in the Application Data Sheet are incorporated herein by reference, in their entirety. Aspects of the embodiments can be modified, if necessary to employ concepts of the various patents, applications and publications to provide yet further embodiments.

These and other changes can be made to the embodiments in light of the above-detailed description. In general, in the following claims, the terms used should not be construed to limit the claims to the specific embodiments disclosed in the specification and the claims, but should be construed to include all possible embodiments along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled. Accordingly, the claims are not limited by the disclosure. 

1. A method in a system for generating estimated wall area measurements including a computer processor and a memory coupled to the computer processor, the method comprising: receiving roof measurements of a building having a roof; receiving a measurement indicative of a distance between at least one reference point on the roof and a ground surface on which the building rests via a placement of a graphical user interface element representing a horizontal planar model ground surface at a position beneath a graphical user interface element representing a digital three-dimensional model of the roof; and generating, based at least in part on the received roof measurements and the received measurement indicative of the distance between the at least one reference point on the roof and the ground surface, an estimated wall area measurement of the building.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the model ground surface has a shape representing a footprint of the building and further comprising: generating the model ground surface based on a shape formed by an outside perimeter of the three-dimensional model of the roof; and reducing line segment lengths of the model ground surface based on sections of the roof represented by the three-dimensional model of the roof that may overhang exterior walls of the building.
 3. The method of claim 2 wherein the generating the estimated wall area measurement of the building includes: generating a digital three-dimensional model of the building by: including the three-dimensional model of the roof as part of the three-dimensional model of the building; and generating a wall within the three-dimensional model of the building by extending the wall from along an edge of a model roof represented by the three-dimensional model of the roof toward a model ground surface, the wall extending a distance until either intersecting a level of the model ground surface, according to the received measurement indicative of the distance between the reference point on the roof and the ground surface, or intersecting another surface of the model roof, according to the three-dimensional model of the roof; and using dimensions of the wall generated in the three-dimensional model of the building to determine an area of the wall.
 4. The method of claim 3 wherein the wall area measurement estimation module is further configured, when executed, to: render the three-dimensional model of the building within a graphical user interface; and provide selectable user interface elements within the graphical user interface configured to be placed on areas on the wall, the user interface elements having dimensions corresponding to areas missing from the wall.
 5. The method of claim 4 wherein the graphical user interface includes windows each displaying different views of the three-dimensional model of the building that are configured to concurrently show modifications being made by a user to a location of the graphical user interface representing the model ground surface and to walls of the three-dimensional model of the building from a corresponding perspective of each of the different views.
 6. The method of claim 4 wherein the dimensions corresponding to areas missing from the wall are those of a predefined window size or a predefined door size.
 7. The method of claim 1 wherein the wall area measurement estimation module is further configured, when executed, to repeat the generating the estimated wall area measurement of the building for each exterior wall of the building.
 8. The method of claim 1 further comprising: subtracting an amount from the estimated wall area measurement of the building corresponding to an area on a wall of the building indicated as an area missing from the wall; and subtracting an amount from the estimated wall area measurement of the building corresponding to an area on a wall of the building that is associated with being above a soffit.
 9. The method of claim 8 wherein the area on the wall of the building indicated as an area missing from the wall is an area corresponding to placement of a cursor on the wall, wherein the cursor represents a shape of the area missing from the wall which changes an angle of view of the shape of the area missing from the wall to match an angle of view of a wall on which the cursor is placed.
 10. The method of claim 1 further comprising: receiving an indication that a wall of the building for which the estimated wall area measurement is generated is at least partially obstructed by an object in an image of the wall used to generate the three-dimensional model of the roof; subtracting a predefined percentage from the estimated wall area measurement of the building corresponding to a size of the partial obstruction to account for possible areas missing from the wall which may be obstructed in the image by the object in the image; and providing an indication in a wall estimation report that the wall of the building for which the estimated wall area measurement is generated is at least partially obstructed.
 11. The method of claim 1 wherein the wall area measurement estimation module is further configured, when executed, to: subtract a predefined percentage from the estimated wall area measurement of the building according to an assumed percentage of non-wall area obstruction.
 12. The method of claim 1, wherein the wall area measurement estimation module is further configured, when executed, to generate and deliver a wall area measurement estimate report that includes multiple line drawings of the building, each from a different perspective annotated with numerical values that indicate corresponding estimated wall area measurements for walls visible in the respective perspective and shading of the walls visible in the respective perspective to differentiate the visible in the respective perspective from each other.
 13. The method of claim 12 wherein the wall area measurement estimation module is further configured, when executed, to generate and deliver a wall area measurement estimate report that includes roof measurements including pitch annotated on corresponding roof sections.
 14. A computer-implemented method for generating estimated wall area measurements, the method comprising: including a three-dimensional model of a roof of a building as part of a three-dimensional model of a building; and generating a wall within the three-dimensional model of the building by extending the wall in the three-dimensional model from along an edge of a model roof represented by three-dimensional model of the roof toward a ground surface, the wall extending a distance until either intersecting a level of a model ground surface at a location beneath the model roof indicated by user input via a graphical user interface showing the model ground surface overlaid and adjustable in the graphical user interface on a perspective view of the roof, or intersecting another surface of the model roof, according to the three-dimensional model of the roof; and using dimensions of the wall generated in the three-dimensional model of the building to determine an area of the wall.
 15. The method of claim 14, further comprising: rendering the three-dimensional model of the building within a graphical user interface; and providing selectable user interface elements within the graphical user interface configured to be placed on areas on the wall, the user interface elements having dimensions corresponding to areas missing from the wall.
 16. The method of claim 14, further comprising: generating windows within the graphical user interface, each generated window configured to display different views of the three-dimensional model of the building and to concurrently show modifications being made by a user to walls of the three-dimensional model of the building from a corresponding perspective of each of the different views.
 17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium whose contents enable a computing system to generate estimated wall area measurements, by performing a method comprising: receiving a first and a second aerial image of a building having a roof, each of the aerial images providing a different view of the roof of the building; correlating the first aerial image with the second aerial image; generating, based at least in part on the correlation between the first and second aerial images, a three-dimensional model of the roof that includes a plurality of planar roof sections that each have a corresponding slope, area, and edges; generating, based at least in part on the three-dimensional model of the roof and placement of a model ground surface at a location beneath the model of the roof indicated by user input, an estimated wall area measurement of the building.
 18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17 wherein the contents further enable a computing system to subtract an amount from the estimated wall area measurement of the building corresponding to an area on a wall of the building indicated as an area missing from the wall.
 19. The computer-readable medium of claim 17 wherein the area on the wall of the building indicated as an area missing from the wall is an area corresponding to a window, a door or a soffit of the building.
 20. A wall area measurement estimate report produced by a process comprising: receiving a first and a second aerial image of a building having a roof, each of the aerial images providing a different view of the roof of the building; correlating the first aerial image with the second aerial image; generating, based at least in part on the correlation between the first and second aerial images, a three-dimensional model of the roof that includes a plurality of planar roof sections that each have a corresponding slope, area, and edges; and generating, based at least in part on the three-dimensional model of the roof and placement of a model ground surface at a location beneath the model of the roof indicated by user input, an estimated wall area measurement of the building.
 21. The wall area report of claim 20 wherein the generating an estimated wall area measurement of the building includes generating a three-dimensional model of the building by including the three-dimensional model of the roof as part of the three-dimensional model of the building and using the placement of a model ground surface at a location beneath the model of the roof indicated by user input to determine a measurement indicative of the distance between a point on the roof and the model ground surface.
 22. The wall area report of claim 20 wherein the model ground surface generated in producing the report is not a planar surface.
 23. The wall area report of claim 20 wherein the process further comprises: a wall estimation system placing the model ground surface at a location beneath the model of the roof based on an determination of the system of an eave to ground distance.
 24. The wall area report of claim 20 wherein the model ground surface is generated in producing the report by registering corresponding or matching points on two different images of the ground. 